The background of the invention will be described in relation to long-distance communications although it will be appreciated that the invention can be applied to a network of any physical size including, for example, for distributing internal data in a data processor or computer.
In networks where a large amount of traffic is telephone calls, it has been customary to configure the network at different times of the day in order to accommodate changes in the volume of traffic. Thus, for example, the network is configured to accommodate the volume of transatlantic traffic which is greatest during that period of the day when business office hours overlap on both sides of the Atlantic.
It is expected that traffic will become less predominantly telephone calls as the volume of data and video increase. It is conjectured that changes in the volume of traffic will become less predictable as users, including autonomous software agents, access international data and video banks, for example, and that a network which can be reconfigured very flexibly and relatively quickly will be needed. One of the problems, for example, in reconfiguring present telephone networks is that it cannot be done while any of the pipes involved are carrying traffic without interrupting all the voice calls being carried or causing errors in the data traffic.